


The HOW

by TheWritingFox



Series: The Sparky Chronicles [3]
Category: Steam Powered Giraffe
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Slice of Life, Sparky has herself a spook
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:34:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27090535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWritingFox/pseuds/TheWritingFox
Summary: Sparky finds The HOW just a tad spooky
Series: The Sparky Chronicles [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1972690
Comments: 3
Kudos: 12





	The HOW

Every robot in Walter Manor had their own room and much to Sparky's delight, she was given one near Rabbit's, just around the corner and down the hall a little ways. Being as she couldn't remember much of what she liked before she was deactivated so long ago, Sparky's room was filled with a small collection of oddities she was attracted to.

Fairy lights were strung across the standing mirror next to the window and a disco ball hung from the ceiling. A small dresser was in one corner with a vase of artificial daisies placed on top of it. Her ukulele rested in its stand near her "bed", a so called anti gravity chair she used when she went into her stand by mode. A bright pink lawn flamingo had found its way to her room as well, no one really knew why. A pair of oversized sunglasses balanced on its beak as it stood near the doorway. Various other odds and ends were scattered around the room, ranging from spare buttons to a (hopefully) unused toilet brush.

While Sparky was free to visit anyone's room, provided she knocked on the wall first, the one place she never visited was The Hall Of Wires or The HOW for short. It was The Spine's room and he didn't much care for unscheduled visitors. Sparky understood, with an at times very chaotic sister like Rabbit, needing a little space to one's self was important.

"Sparky! Me and Zer0 are gonna watch a m-movie. Hows about yo-you go ask The Spine if he w-w-wants to join us?" Rabbit asks her.

They were currently in the kitchen, supervising an excited Zer0 as he unwraps the plastic from the popcorn bag. "Zer0 wants t-to make the popcorn, and I gotta w-watch him. You know how he likes to melt stuff in there", Rabbit continues.

"Okay, but are you sure The Spine won't be upset if I bother him?" Sparky asks.

"Naw", Rabbit waves a hand dismissively, "He's not answering my texts, probably still in stasis. J-just be sure to knock. It'll be g-g-good for him to come out and have f-fun. You r-r-remember how to get there?"

Sparky nods. "Yup. I'll be back", she exits the kitchen leaving Rabbit in charge of Zer0. She hears in passing Zer0 suggesting pairing ice cream with the popcorn.

A few twists and turns later Sparky is standing in front of The HOW, one of the few rooms in the Manor with a door. 

"The Spine?" Sparky calls out and knocks a few times on the thick metal door.

No reply from inside, she knocks again, wishing she could access the Manor's WiFi and text The Spine, but she wasn't upgraded with that option yet. With most of her inner workings still a mystery to the Walter Workers and even Peter Walter the Sixth for the time being, they didn't want to risk damaging her.

Sparky was about to knock and call out again when the doors swooshed open surprisingly. A computer screen drops down from the doorway to Sparky's level, a smiley face pixelates on it.

"[QWERTY ONLINE] [Identify....] [identification complete] [Sparky, robot friend, lolz]", he says to her in a electronic voice.

"Oh, hello QWERTY, nice to meet you." Sparky hadn't met personally with the AI but had heard about him before. "I was sent to ask The Spine something, may I come in?"

"[Sparky robot friend] [allow access?] [Access granted] [lolz]", QWERTY buzzes once, before retracting back into the ceiling, allowing the little copper robot entry. "[Initiating wake up procedure....The Spine wake up procedure complete] [No more sleepy stasis time, lolz] [QWERTY out]", the AI's voice bloops out before he turns off.

Sparky walks shyly into the room, looking about her as the door slid closed behind her. The room was illuminated lowly by a red light source Sparky couldn't pin point, and was covered in black wires, the floor, walls ceiling, draped across the room, everywhere. It sure was spooky in here...

"The Spine? Rabbit asked me to come by, she wants to know if you wanna watch a movie with us. QWERTY let me in, I hope that was ok...The Spine? Where are you?...", her question trails off when she sees The Spine standing in the center of the room, partially obscured from her vision by more of the black wires. Nudging the wires away, she looks up and freezes. The Spine's head was....gone? 

Fear seizes the little bot, she reaches up and taps gently on The Spine's chassis. "The Spine?!", her voice glitches in fear.

An emerald glow from above makes her look up to see The Spine's head and spinal collumn suspended from the ceiling by the wires. His green optic lights blink at her, the snake like end of his spinal column wiggles. She stumbles back with a start, joints locking up in her haste to get away.

Sparky trips on one of the numerous wires on the floor and falls backwards with a distorted scream, landing with a heavy thud. She can see from her spot on the floor the wires on the ceiling moving in the direction of The Spine's body. She scrambles to her feet and dashes to the door. There was no handle or knob that she could see or feel when she ran her hands over the door's smooth surface. QWERTY seemed to have gone offline, how was she going to get out? The more stressed she became, the more Sparky could feel her circuits heat up, she was already starting to spark from her ears in distress.

' _What's wrong with The Spine? That can't be normal, was he broken? Did something else do that to him? Is that gonna happen to me?!', she thinks frantically._

The hiss of hydraulics and footsteps sound from behind her. Squeezing her blue optics shut, Sparky whirls around and flings her hands out in front of her, the fearful thoughts in her head imagining the worst things. Perhaps the same unknown thing that took The Spine apart was coming for her too.

"Sparky, are you alright? I didn't mean to scare you", a familiar deep voice asks in concern.

The smaller robot's optics shoot open to see the tall silver bot standing in front of her, his green optics glowing gently at her as he tilts his head in concern.

"The Spine?", she squeaks before rushing forward and wrapping her arms around the silver robot's waist in a hug. "You're alright!"

The unexpected action made The Spine pause for a moment before gently hugging the little robot back. "Of course I'm alright, why wouldn't I be?", he inquires gently.

Sparky didn't want to let go until she knew The Spine was 100% ok. "You, you were hanging out of your body. I thought something terrible had happened in here and I was next", she replies, voice still slightly distorted from stress and currently muffled by The Spine's striped waist coat.

Realization dawns on The Spine. "Nobody told you....Sparky I'm fine, really. You can let go now. Let me explain."

Sparky complies, stepping back and looking up at him. Now that she'd calmed down a bit, the sparks from her ears had stopped but her blue optics still held a concerned gleam.

"Nothing bad happened to me. It's completely normal for me to do that", The Spine explains, "its how I can relax fully after a hard day. I lounge up there out of my chassis to interface with the electronics in the Manor, or go into stasis. Do you understand now?", he smiles kindly at the little robot who nods, clearly relieved that nothing was wrong with The Spine.

"Good! Now, I heard something about a movie night with Rabbit and Zer0?", he asks her cheerfully.

"Oh! That's right!", with all the recent excitement Sparky had nearly forgotten why she was there. "Poor Rabbit must think I've gotten lost", she giggles softly, "do you wanna watch some movies with us?"

The Spine accepts his fedora from one of the wires and adjusts it on his head with a smile. "I would be delighted." 

The pair exit The HOW and make their way to living room 4, where Rabbit, Zer0, and Steve were trying to decide on a few movies. "I hope nobody laughs about how scared I was...", Sparky adds an afterthought before they go in. 

Rabbit looks up when Sparky and The Spine enter. "Th-there you are Sparky! I w-w-was gonna send out a search party", she laughs, "and y-y-you brought Th' Spine! W-w-what took you guys so long?", she asks with a smile, hands on hips.

"Well..." Sparky gives a nervous chuckle, unsure how the others would react to how scared she was of The Spine detached from his body. 

"Sparky got tripped up in some of the wires when she came to get me." The Spine adds in, saving the little bot any embarrassment. He gives Sparky a subtle wink. It wasn't necessarily a lie, she did trip after all. Spine knew the rest of the family wouldn't have teased Sparky, but if this made her feel better, he was alright with stretching the truth a little for the newest family member.

"Oh! Are you ok?" Zer0 asks. "Y-yeah, are ya?", Rabbit adds.

"I'm fine, really", Sparky assures them with a smile then asks, "what movie did you guys pick out?", hoping to get the attention off her, she shoots a grateful look to The Spine, mouthing a silent 'thanks' when the other bots turn around to retrieve their respective choices.

"I found this one, Veggie Tales!", Zer0 says proudly, "And, and this one! Frozen, like ice cream". He smiles, clearly happy in his movie choices.

"I found The T-T-Terminator. It's l-like totally amazing" Rabbit presents her choice.

"Hmm, I don't know. What do you think The Spine?" Sparky asks the silver bot.

"Terminator's good with me", Spine replies "I'd pass on Veggie Tales, but it's up to you guys. Frozen is kinda cool. Whatever you guys wanna do."

"Huh, well how about all of them?" Sparky suggests, turning back to the others who agree and start getting settled.

Frozen ended up being the first movie of the night. Everything was going fine until the "Let It Go" number, where Rabbit started pelting the others with popcorn, while singing along to the song. A fun night, nonetheless.


End file.
